Coincidentally, Apple also slipped in a tidbit about the future of its LCD displays. Jobs mentioned in his post that one of the key areas that his company was striving for was the removal of mercury in the use of its products. Mercury is a chemical element that is present in LCDs that use fluorescent tube backlights. Apple will announce LED backlit displays within 2007, which eliminate the use of mercury, Jobs said.

"Fortunately, all iPod displays already use LEDs for illumination, and therefore contain no mercury." Jobs said. "Our ability to completely eliminate fluorescent lamps in all of our displays depends on how fast the LCD industry can transition to LED backlighting for larger displays."

Users will gain several advantages with the arrival of LED backlit LCD panels. One key advantage is LED backlit LCD panels have greater backlight uniformity than cold cathode fluorescent tube-based LCDs. This gives professionals more color accuracy and a larger gamut. Of course being green means energy saving, and LED panels use far less energy than fluorescent tubes.

"Apple is already a leader in innovation and engineering, and we are applying these same talents to become an environmental leader," Jobs said.

After Jobs' announcement, Greenpeace quickly responded by indicating that because of Apple's new commitments, it will update Apple's 2.7 out of 10 rating to a approximately a 5.

"Apple fans have greeted this campaign, and they have made clear what they want-- an Apple which is not just green skin-deep, but green to the core," the Greenpeace said.

The Greenpeace group also asks that Apple develop a program to recycle unwanted products in an earth-friendly fashion, and Apple is doing just that. Old iPods will be accepted at all 150 Apple stores in exchange for a discount on a purchase of a new iPod. Oddly enough, Greenpeace was kicked out of MacWorld late last year for voicing its opinions on products being displayed at the show.

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This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

However, the writer of the article clearly doesn't realise that there is [i]NO[/i] such thing as "perfect image reproduction." Ever wonder why screens (any screens--TV screens, computer monitors, whatever) can't display the shade of blue that the sky is? Because they don't have "perfect image reproduction". Also, "perfect image reproduction" is purely judgmental. Maybe my perfect screen is brighter than yours, or has deeper blacks than yours--who knows?

My point is this: there is no such thing as a perfect screen. No screen can display all the colours of nature, to use a cliché, so why try? If you want to see something reproduced perfectly, go see it in person.

quote: However, the writer of the article clearly doesn't realise that there is [i]NO[/i] such thing as "perfect image reproduction." Ever wonder why screens (any screens--TV screens, computer monitors, whatever) can't display the shade of blue that the sky is?

You missed his very funny tongue-in-cheek point. Apple fanboys constantly drill how Apple stuff is perfect and the better than that's even theoretically possible in the real world. To the point of being very annoying. So Apple saying that things will improve contradicts the fanboy perfection statements. It's more poking fun at the Apple zealots than anything else, not a technical statement.

While you are correct that "perfect image reproduction" is a limit that we can only approach -- never reach -- with physical display technology, it is absurd to suggest that we don't bother trying. That is akin to saying that the last ten years of rapidly improving game graphics have been a waste of time, since they'll never be "perfect".

Likewise, people should never try to improve themselves in any regard, because they can never achieve perfection and that makes the attempt pointless. I'd hate to see that world.

I, for one, welcome an increased color gamut in my computer display because unfortunately, I can't just pick up and go see the heather hills of Scotland or the mountains of Mars on a whim. What I see on my monitor is as close as I'm going to get.